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Thursday, December 8, 2011

ESPN reporter Andrews sues man for peephole videos


ESPN reporter Erin Andrews has filed a new $10 million invasion of privacy lawsuit over a 2008 incident in which she was videotaped in the nude through the peephole of her Nashville hotel room.

Andrews, one of the most popular reporters on the network, wants $6 million, plus costs and interest, from the West End Marriott, and $4 million from Michael Barrett, the Chicago man who pleaded guilty to stalking Andrews and was sentenced in 2010 to 2 1/2 years in federal prison.

According to Davidson County Circuit Court records, the suit was originally filed last year and was refiled to make sure the statute of limitations did not run out.

At Barrett's sentencing hearing, Andrews said that she still suffers fear, anxiety and public humiliation as a result of having been stalked.

"I'm being victimized every day...and I did nothing to deserve it," Andrews said, adding the videos will likely always be on the Internet.

Prosecutors said Barrett had traveled to at least three cities and taken videos of the sideline reporter through the peepholes of hotel rooms.

According to the lawsuit, Andrews said the hotel was guilty of negligence for, among other things, allowing Barrett to know that Andrews was staying in the hotel and then allowing him to book a room next to her own. Andrews was in Nashville to cover a Vanderbilt University football game.

She also said the hotel was negligent for failing to discover Barrett altered the peephole of the plaintiff's hotel room door, allowing the videos to be taken.

The suit said the videotaping and posting of the nude images continues to cause Andrews "great emotional distress and embarrassment."

The hotel chain declined comment on the lawsuit.

"Unfortunately we do not comment on pending litigation," said Jeff Flaherty, Marriott's director of public relations.

Andrews' Nashville attorney, Mary A. Parker, declined to comment on the case.

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